Express Makeup is devotes itself  to professional models / extreme runway looks that few girls or women could ever wear in real life.  The instructions are minimal, assuming that the reader already knows the techniques and best brands that are found in Morris’ first book titled Makeup: The Ultimate Guide.

This book is of minimal value as a stand alone source due to the extreme runway looks featured in it, and because the styles featured are ‘express’, assuming the reader knows the basics the author is referring to.

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick is a face-paced, action-packed thriller filled with car chases, thugs, graphic killing scenes, exploding buildings, sexual tension, and a random bear fight, and is so intriguing that the book is hard to put down.

There are plenty of holes in the plot, but for youth readers looking for an engaging read, this novel is perfect.

The plot involves Perry Stormaire, a normal high school senior who is busy applying to colleges and rehearsing with his band. His life dramatically shifts when his parents pressure him into taking Gobi, the Lithuanian exchange student who’s been living with his family, to the prom.  The night of prom, Perry learns firsthand that Gobi is actually a highly trained killer, on a determined mission to avenge her sister’s death. Perry goes on a wild ride through the streets of New York City as Gobi commandeers the Jaguar his father lent him for the prom in order to take out her targets. Perry ends up with some terrific material for his college application essays.

A nice touch was having each chapter open with a college application question which the chapter then proceeded to answer in a roundabout way, and these play into the climatic ending.

The Student Athlete’s Guide to Getting Recruited is the definitive guide for all high school students that dream of playing college sports. This guide is very useful to both female and male student athletes and their parents, and addresses how to get recruited by top colleges and universities. Additionally, it offers vital tips on how to excel academically in both high school and college to ensure a successful career as a student-athlete, and dispels a multitude of myths about how athletic scholarships are awarded and who gets them.

This guidebook offers information provided by a range of high school and college counselors, athletic trainers, and successful college sports coaches from private and public college universities. Each chapter uses student athletes as case studies and walks the reader through their experiences with scholarships and financial aid, recruiting rules, recruiting practices, college interviews and visitations, sports training and healthy lifestyles, transitioning from high school to college, and the rigors and realities of being a student athlete.

The guidebook provides tips for understanding the complicated NCAA recruiting rules and information on what colleges really want from athletes in their programs.

The appendix includes athletic, financial and educational resource and college coaches’ websites.

iBoy, the most recent novel by British novelist Kevin Brooks, is a high tech, action packed, violence laced story of a boy who, through an injury received through an act of violence by a youth gang, has pieces of an iPhone embedded in his head.

Throughout the book, the hero used the technological features of the phone within his brain to try to hunt down and seek revenge on the gang members who not only injured him but also raped his girlfriend.

The graphic violence in the novel will be hard for many readers to take and, unfortunately, the gang actions are based on recent true-life incidents in England.

Kevin Brooks’ novels appeal to young adults who enjoy action – adventures and iBoy likely will be as well received as its predecessors.

Evercrossed is a sequel to the popular teen love story Kissed by an Angel series. Fourth in the series, Evercrossed continues the story of teen sweethearts Ivy and Tristan. Tristan has been killed in a car accident and a year later Ivy has moved on with a new boyfriend Will. Ivy then is seriously injured in a car accident and as she hangs between life and death, she meets her soulmate Tristan and they share one heartbreaking kiss. The kiss, however, brings Ivy back to life. Tristan, as an angel, is prohibited from interfering with matters of life and death and therefore falls from heaven. As a fallen angel in a stranger’s body on earth, Tristan must find his way to Ivy.

Although this book is part of a series, there is enough background information provided to the reader to make it a stand alone read.  Evercrossed has mystery, romance (although some readers may find some dialog a bit sappy), and an engaging plot.

Genocide, a termed coined after the Holocaust’s scope of horror and destruction left world leaders without sufficient vocabulary to describe it, comes from the Greek word ‘genos’ (race or tribe) and the Latin word ‘cide’ (kill), and defines the deliberate annihilation of a race of people. Considered one of the four large-scale genocides of the 20^th century (the Holocaust in Germany, Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, and the slaughter of Armenians / Greeks by the Turks), the Rwanda massacre resulted in the murders of approximately 800,000 with a three-month time.

Dan Hardo’s The Rwandan Genocide explains in concise detail how such atrocities could happen. Hardo reviews the historical context of colonialism and explains how the Belgians worked with the Catholic Church to reinforce and exploit the social differences between tribes that sowed the seeds of future hatred between them. Hardo uses interviews with foreign war correspondents to show the reader that beneath the surface of this genocide, there was not a simple issue of tribal hatreds but a complex web of politics, economics, history, psychology and a struggle for identity among the peoples. Hardo presents numerous eyewitness accounts to explain how the United Nations organization hindered the UN peacekeeping forces within Rwanda from stopping the slaughter, how the death squads were recruited and trained, and how radio broadcasts were used to spread propaganda and incite murder.

Hardo also describes how other countries (US, Italy, France) used their troops to evacuate their own citizens but did not commit troops to help Belgium maintain order after ten Belgium troops were brutally murdered. The US and others later admitted that they should have done more to stop the mass murders. Hardo notes that surveys determined that if these governments had used the term ‘genocide’ in the debate of whether or not to commit troops, a majority of their citizens would have supported military action.

Hardo ends the book with an account of how Rwanda has rebuilt itself in the sixteen years since the genocide, how the country has desegregated itself, and sought justice for the ringleaders of the movement.  Interestingly, justice often came in the form of restitution such as working on a victim’s land.

The Rwandan Genocide is a disturbing read with graphic descriptions of slaughter of men, women (including pregnant women), children and even infants. There are color photographs of the victims, as well as photos of the death squads, the military, political figures, and of the country’s natural beauty and wildlife.

As a book in a series on world history, The Rwandan Genocide includes maps, timelines, and an annotated bibliography and defines vocabulary words within the text itself.

The pictures in this book are great.  The sister is a “know-it-all”.  That left the story a bit flat I think.  The pictures are the best part of this story.

Young dragon livers will enjoy that part of the book.

This is a great book to help children interested in writing books.  It walks them through the entire process, from illistrations, to creating a story, to binding the finished product.

Creative writers with an interest in art would also enjoy this book.

This is a story about two teenage boys from different military sides of the Crusades.  Salim is an Islamic boy who is an apprentice to a Jewish doctor.  Together they are recruited by the Sultan Saladin for the war effort.  Adam, the other boy, is a peasant raised to squire from England.  His lord was one of the first to arrive on Holy soil.  Both armies have occupied the area around the city of Acre and are attempting to wait the other out of food.  Salim and Adam do meet each other and find that they could be friends.  The boys discover that their prejudices are unfounded.  Their bond solidifies and they work together to help each others families.

In the story, the characters are relatable and the internal conflicts they have can be found even in today’s world.  The author’s writing style is conversational which allows the reader to connect to the characters more.  The message in this historical fiction novel is clear:  Prejudices have no foundation.  Get to know someone before you judge them.

— Michael S.

In this science fiction novel, a  young boy named Rigg and his Father live alone in the wilderness as trappers.  His Father is constantly training and teaching him everything from different speech styles to math. When his Father suddenly dies, Rigg is faced with discovering the truth behind his Power.  In the village, Rigg meets another boy with a Power; they discover that their Power together allows Rigg to see people from different times.  So begins Rigg’s journey to discover his past.

This book forces the reader to be constantly thinking about what could happen next in the complicated plot.  Voracious science fiction fans will not be able to put this book down.  The author’s writing is very descriptive and well-paced.  The narrators of the story reveal sides of different worlds; always keeping the reader on the edge of their seat.  This adventure time travel novel is guaranteed thrills!

— Michael S.